In Formula 1, the standoff of the 2021-2022 season, accompanied by breathtaking suspense and dramaturgy, is only a distant memory. The epic duel between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen was resolved on the last lap of the last race. Ten months later, the epilogue of the championship offers on the contrary a scenario without surprise, since the Dutchman achieved in 2022 an impressive solo rider.
On Sunday October 9, he won the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Sergio Perez and his main rival, Charles Leclerc, third after a five-second penalty. “It’s crazy, it’s a mix of emotions. I won the race, I won the championshipreacted the double world champion. What a season we have been through. I would never have imagined dominating so much after what happened last year when we fought until the end. We have such a nice car. »
Unsurprisingly given the season but with a lot of confusion and twists and turns at Suzuka. On a Japanese circuit made very difficult by the rain which fell and caused the interruption of the race for long minutes from the third lap, Max Verstappen did it again by retaining his title of world champion while he remains four races to be contested on the calendar.
The scenario was surprising since the Dutchman did not think, at first, to score enough points to be crowned this weekend. It wasn’t until his post-race interview that he heard the news.
When the number of laps completed is between 50% and 75% of the total number of laps scheduled for a Grand Prix (fifty-three at Suzuka), the points awarded are reduced: 19 for example for the winner instead of 25 and 14 for second instead of 18 points. However, to everyone’s surprise, according to an obscure paragraph of the complex Formula 1 regulations, the race management finally decided to award the classic number of points, even though the drivers only completed twenty-seven of the fifty- three laps of the Japanese Grand Prix.
The most bizarre world champion title announcement in history ?? #JapaneseGP ?? https://t.co/9RRAk7MDeN
With the penalty from Leclerc, who missed his last corner, Verstappen scored ten points more than the Monegasque. He thus increases his lead from 104 to 114 points. He also leads his teammate Sergio Perez by 113 points. And can no longer be joined in the Drivers’ World Championship standings.
“He was at the top of his game”
Throughout the season, “Max”’s appetite will have been maximum, like the slogan that his many “oranje” supporters, who follow him all over the world, display on their T-shirts. In eighteen races, he won twelve. The world champion was unanimous even within the paddocks. “He was at the top of his game. He was very consistentrecognizes the French Esteban Ocon, pilot of Alpine. He also managed extraordinary races starting from very far behind, coming up and winning without any contact, without any error. Congratulations to him. »
However, the beginning of the year foreshadowed a great rivalry, no longer between Mercedes and Red Bull, but between the ghost Ferrari and the team of the Austrian energy drink brand. The return to the forefront of the famous transalpine team was only a flash in the pan: two victories in the first three Grands Prix for Charles Leclerc. At Imola in April, on “Rossi” land, Verstappen began a series of five successes in six races, leaving only crumbs to the competition, including one victory… to his team-mate Sergio Perez.
At the heart of the summer, Ferrari would briefly hope with two victories in Great Britain (July 3) and Austria (July 10) before giving way definitively at the Grand Prix de France (July 24). Max Verstappen was too strong, like his breathtaking performance on the Spa-Franconchamp circuit, where the Dutchman would win the Belgian Grand Prix on August 28 despite a penalty which had pushed him back to the 14the position on the starting grid.
Even his boss, the Briton Christian Horner, who has frequented the phenomenon since his promotion to Red Bull in 2016, could not believe it: “You are witnessing the performance of a driver who becomes one with his car (…), in a state of grace. » A week later, it was at home that Verstappen sowed a little more competition. In Zandvoort aan Zee, a small Dutch seaside resort on the North Sea, 300,000 spectators celebrated the victory and especially the title promised to their favorite a few weeks in advance.
“A Normal Guy”
Silent, a man of few words – except when he rails against opponents, race marshals or even his own team in the middle of the race – Max Verstappen contrasts with the enthusiasm of his orange army of fans. This driver’s son (his father Jos also drove an F1) was born to drive a racing car. And that’s all that interests him. In this, he is very far from the glamor of his predecessor Lewis Hamilton, a planetary star at ease in the world of glitter and show business.
In a recent interview with Worldon his land, Verstappen defined himself as “a normal guy”. And after having waited five years in F1 to be able to join the race for the title, he also found his development normal: “Over the years, you don’t improve so much on your raw pace in racing but you improve by experimenting with things throughout the seasons, as if you were putting the pieces of a puzzle together. »
Winning last season was a click after years of frustration: “I’ve always said that whatever comes after the first league win would be a bonus. This is indeed the case. » Without this being an end result. It would be misunderstanding this obsessed with performance and victory: “I want to win even more. »
At 25, which he celebrated last week in Singapore, the champion seems to have reached the climax of his art. Without thinking of Hamilton’s seven consecutive titles, he can dream of a long series of successes.
Engaged in the first year of its new regulations, supposed to allow more competition and a rebalancing between several teams, F1 did not hope for such an overwhelming domination. Seeing it continue would be good neither for his image nor for that of his champion.
Suzuka driver safety controversy
In October 2014, on the Suzuka circuit, Jules Bianchi had struck at full speed a lifting crane which was maneuvering to free another single-seater. Plunged into a coma, the young French pilot died nine months later.
Eight years after this tragic accident, a tragedy may have been avoided during the 2022 edition of the Japanese Grand Prix. Another tricolor pilot, Pierre Gasly, avoided the collision with a similar machine which had entered the track to free the damaged single-seater of Carlos Sainz. The red flag had apparently not yet been raised or was about to be. “I could have killed myself”got carried away Gasly.
“How do we make it clear that we never want to see a crane on the track? We lost Jules because of this error. What happened today is totally unacceptable!!!!! »reacted in particular Sergio Perez on Twitter, even before the race resumed.